lesson 3 wrote:キス ____________ This means ____________サケ____________ This means ____________ [This is usually written in hiragana and is a traditional Japanese drink]サイ _____________ This means Rhino [Sorry, you probably couldn't guess this meaning, but try to read it!]アシ _____________ This means ______________ [means a body part in Japanese (again usually written in hiragana or kanji]ケース _____________ This means ______________ [something you carry - remember the ー means to make the previous sound longer]アース _____________ This means ______________ [No, it doesn't mean a body part! Remember Japanese doesn't have a 'TH' sound and think of a planet]

lesson 9 wrote:アイスクリーム ____________ This means ____________アメリカ ____________ This means ____________ローソク_____________ This means candle (not from English)キレイ _____________ This means pretty in Japanese (you may know this one already)テレビ_____________ This means ______________ [NOTE: If you have studied Hiragana, you are familiar with the tenten marks (looks like quotes over the ヒ). It changes the sound from hi to Bi - more on this later...]ハロー _____________ This means ______________

These are all fine, in part because テレビ makes sure to mention the ヒ→ビ change from the tentens.

Do you think we'd be fine using some of the words with the ッ (and maybe even ファ etc) as long as we gave a brief explanation and maybe linked to the lesson where they were covered more fully?

Or should we avoid them?

I think it might be better to include them because otherwise if someone were only studying the katakana, they wouldn't see them until after the lessons were over. If we include it, at least they get more of a chance to see it in use as they learn.

(If they study the Hiragana first and then the Katakana, they should be familiar with the っ already, but they still wouldn't be familiar with the ファ because I think such combinations are only used in katakana.)